78°13'31.16"N 15°37'32.29"E
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| (From BBC) |
To put us in situation, Longyearbyen is the capital of the Norwegian dependent territory of Svalbard & Jan Mayen, two islands located in the Arctic. Jan Mayen is very tiny, meanwhile Svalbard is roughly the size of Latvia (not really huge neither) and is also the island which contains today's wonder. Furthermore, the last one has much history to tell.
Many years ago, Svalbard was just an arctic hinterland inhabited by polar bears, occasional whalers and, evidently, whales. Nevertheless, all this ended when some of those "occasional whalers" found coal. So as you could realize, Svalbard turned into the center of attention of many countries: the USA, the UK, Sweden, Norway and the Soviet Union. The point is that all the countries mentioned created little settlements around the region, taking advantage of its position as a terra nullius (Later, the Treaty of Svalbard would assert the Norwegians sovereignty over the island, but even so, it would continue accepting international mining). However, most mines are closed in the present day due to the lack of coal, or in case of Norway, due to eco-friendly reasons. And one of those abandoned mines is the one of Longyearbyen, although, people still live here. Why?
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| Longyearbyen Abandoned Coal Mine (from Visit Svalbard) |
Because unlike other settlements, Longyearbyen was bigger and had a hospital, a school, a church, a bank and a power station. Therefore, workers decided to stay here with their families. So, without knowing, they became the residents of the northernmost city in the world; which at the same time wants to forget its turbulent history, by becoming mainly a tourist town. It already features an own hotel and museum (The Svalbard Cultural and Natural History Museum) to boost tourism, though the snowy landscape does the bigger part. This sounds actually quite cool and nice to live in, but that is questionable.
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| Polar Bear Warning Sign (from Wikimedia Commons) |
We have to take into account that Longyearbyen is built at 78 degrees North, meaning that it is in the middle of an extreme arctic climate. Firstly, the sun doesn't come out from October to March, meaning that you have to be more than half a year in complete darkness and, to top it all off, there are numerous blackouts. But as a reward, the whole bunch of neighbors celebrate Solfestuka, the "Sun Festival", when it finally shines again. Longyearbyen is also home to many animals such as Arctic birds or polar bears; therefore, cats are banned so that they don't hurt birds, and you have permission to carry a firearm as protection against the attack of a polar bear. Another law doesn't allow you to bury people as the bodies won't decompose with the permafrost; the alternative is to put them on a plane which sends them to continental Norway where they are finally concealed (funeral cars weren't enough, as it seems). Lastly, there is the following fun tradition which reflects the character of the locals: whilst visitors can buy as much alcohol as they want, locals have a monthly quota which they can't exceed. This is so, because in the past, officials drunk all they wanted and in the meantime miners had a limit!
But Longyearbyen is also thinking of the future; climate change is having effect here: extreme temperatures, outrageous quantities of rainfall and avalanches which tore down houses. Authorities are investing in a big rebuilding process and are already protecting the city with avalanche barriers and have stated that, from now on, every house must be built on metal stilts. It may really be time to forget about the past.
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| Avalanche Barriers (from BBC) |
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